Dorothy Joyce of Lowell, who lives in the Massachusetts Mills apartments, meets her granddaughter Hayley Joyce's school bus with her homemade stop sign so they can safely cross Bridge Street. Hayley, 9, is in third grade at Greenhalge School. Watch video at lowellsun.com. SUN/Julia Malakie

LOWELL - Clutching a handmade stop sign, Dorothy Joyce stood outside the Massachusetts Mills apartments Thursday afternoon, hoping the cars would stop so her granddaughter and her classmates could get off the school bus and safely cross Bridge Street. The sign is a simple red piece of paper reading "STOP." It is taped to a cardboard handle. And it is Joyce's cudgel, so to speak.

The 64-year-old Army veteran has been using it for about a month after years of being frustrated by the cars that zoom past despite the presence of a big, yellow school bus with children hopping off.

"It's ridiculous," Joyce said.

"For four years now it's been going."

Her granddaughter, 9-year-old Hayley Joyce, takes the bus to the Greenhalge Elementary School.

Dorothy Joyce helps students cross busy Bridge Street at the school bus, where the crosswalk has faded.

After many days of seeing cars ignore the bus's stop sign, Joyce tried seeking help from city officials. She went to a City Council meeting about a year ago, asking if there could be a stop sign put in the area of the bus stop or if a police officer could be stationed there during bus drop off.

Joyce said she also tried talking with Police Superintendent William Taylor as well as Mayor Rodney Elliott. Taylor told The Sun he recalls speaking with Joyce and that he referred the matter to the department's traffic bureau.
Elliott said Friday night that he's requested that the city explore implementing measures there to "ensure the safety of the kids crossing the street."

"It obviously makes sense considering the amount of kids at that stop, and the high volume of traffic there," Elliott said.

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"I think it's important to follow through on this to protect the people who want to cross that street."
Before Joyce began using her homemade sign, she would just walk out into the busy street and yell "stop" at cars racing past the school bus. She said that one day when she did that, a police officer who was sitting in his car nearby yelled at her, claiming she was disturbing the peace. "Cars won't stop," Joyce said. "Their excuse is they don't see the school bus.

Dorothy Joyce of Lowell meets her granddaughter, Hayley Joyce, 9, each day as she exits the school bus on Bridge Street.

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Joyce said she's almost been hit by a car about five times trying to help her granddaughter safely cross the street.

"It's an accident waiting to happen," Joyce said. "I'm just fed up with it now." And she's not the only one with complaints.
Hayley, who is in the third grade, said she wishes a police officer would help stop the cars. But she does like the sight of her grandmother holding a stop sign.

"It makes me feel safe," Hayley said. Fellow Mass Mills resident Gilbert Sawyer waits at the same stop to get his second-grade grandson off the bus, and also sees drivers rushing down the street.
"A lot of the time they'll blow right by ... I'll just walk out in the middle of the street," Sawyer said. "I'd rather get hit than have a kid get hit." Like Joyce, Samantha Foote said she would also like to see a stop sign or police detail at the stop.
"Especially for young kids getting off the bus," said Foote, who picks up her kindergarten-aged niece.

Though drivers don't always seem to understand why Joyce is out in the street with a stop sign, she said the bus driver once thanked her for her efforts.

The impatient drivers aren't the only problem. At the entrance of Mass Mills Drive, small specs of paint from a long forgotten cross walk are at the corner of the road. The crosswalk paint has been faded for some time, and the city has not come by to repaint, Joyce and Sawyer said.

Though Joyce does not believe there will be any action to help make the bus stop safer, she still has dreams. "I want a real stop sign," she said, still clutching her homemade one.

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